Triton XX, Lot: 53. Estimate $10000. Sold for $13000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Katane. Circa 461-450 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 17.31 g, 12h). River-god Amenanos as a man-headed bull kneeling right; above, satyr running right, hands extended and raised before him; in exergue, ketos right / Nike running left, wearing long chiton, holding a fillet in her extended right hand; retrograde KA-TAN-AIO-N counterclockwise around from upper left. Mirone 20 var. (orientation of ethnic; same obv. die); Randazzo 62–6 (same dies); HGC 2, 560; SNG ANS –; SNG Lloyd 887 var. (Nike holds two fillets; same obv. die); De Luynes 888 (same rev. die); Dewing –; Gillet –; Gulbenkian –; Hunt III 15 (same dies); Kraay & Hirmer 28 (same obv. die); Kunstfreund –; Rizzo pl. 9, 13 (same rev. die). EF, lightly toned, typical double strike on reverse. Magnificent obverse. Very rare.

Ex Roma V (23 March 2013), lot 88.

This beautiful piece is from the first coinage struck at Katane following the liberation of the city from Syracusan domination in the late 460s BC. The obverse of this series features the local river god Amenanos in the guise of a man-headed bull. On the reverse, the spirited figure of Nike holding a diadem appears, like so many Sicilian coin types, to have an agonistic significance, as well as an allusion to the recent victory of the native Katanaians and the recovery of their city. Nearly all published examples of this issue have double-struck reverses.